I WAS upset to read the article regarding Paradise Lane Pre-school and the Swine Flu (Formby Times, June 17).

All my three children have attended Paradise Lane Pre-school so I have been in contact with the staff and the school since 2001.

They have always been professional, caring and supportive and I always recommend the Pre-school to anyone who asks.

I was contacted out of hours by staff prior to taking my daughter to her normal session.

When I arrived for the session I was stopped at the door by concerned staff and explained in great detail the situation.

I was given a information document with telephone number, etc, on for me to investigate further should I felt the need.

I was then asked if I wanted my daughter to attend that day.

Due to the thorough information that I received from staff and the information document that I had I didn’t feel my child was at risk.

I decided to keep my daughter in the nursery for that session rather than taking her home with me.

The classroom was full and thriving as it usually was.

The staff were very concerned and were reassuring everyone who entered into the pre-school.

I think that the pre-school acted in a most professional, informative and caring way to a potential outbreak which I must add never happened.

The member of staff who had came into contact with the illness has always been a most popular member of the team at Paradise Lane Pre-school, the children flock around her and she is loved by all the children and would always put them first. I believe that the school were in contact with the relevant organisations to support them with information and considered closing but were told there was no need to do that.

The staff and school deserve a big pat on the back for the way they dealt with the whole situation. Well done, Paradise Lane Pre-school.

CHRIS GILFOYLE

Contact details supplied

School did care

I AM writing in response to last week’s article about Paradise Lane Pre School.

I have a three-year-old who attends and feel your article was unfair.

It implied the member of staff concerned had no thought for the safety of the children when this could not be further from the truth.

I fail to see how the staff could have handled the situation any better than they did.

We were, as parents, given the option to withdraw our children, kept informed and were provided with the doctors name at the Dept of Health who declared the setting safe.

I was one of many parents who continued to send their child to the Pre School and felt confident to do so.

CAROLYNE HORROCKS

Via email

Why go BNP?

WHY was it necessary for 'former Conservative voter'' to resort to the BNP (Views, June 17) in order to give the three main parties a kicking?

Perhaps the writer would also like to tell us which of the BNP's policies were agreed with and did these out weigh all of the others that were disapproved of? Is it really justifiable to vote this way just because there's no EU referendum on offer?

With the number of parties that were on the ballot sheet there must have been at least one other that was more preferable than the BNP with their policies which are an anathema to most people?

KATHY TAPHOUSE

Via email

Once fine town

I WRITE in sadness as to what is happening to my beloved Formby.

A once lovely village visited by many is now becoming rubbish strewn, empty shops and a meeting place for gangs of youths from all areas.

When you look around all you see is:

l Rubbish everywhere and glass smashed

l Empty shops

l Gangs of youths around the swimming pool and making parks ‘no-go’ areas

l You can't visit the beach or pinewoods for fear of being confronted by gangs of drunken youths

l Children as young as 12 in the parks late at night - where are the parents and do they really care what their children are up to?

l There continues to be a very ‘WAG - chav’ society in Formby, with many showing off their wealth in their 4x4s or black range rover sports, all part of the stereotype conveyor belt.

l There is no police presence so litter, crime, dog mess, cars parked on the pavements (the list is never ending) continues to increase.

So residents of Formby please wake up, take pride and responsibility, demand more before our lovely village and surrounding areas are lost forever.

J O WILLIAMS

Freshfield Road, Formby

Policing hours

I HAVE in the past couple of months been to Formby Police Station on two occasions during the advertised opening hours (ie 8am-4pm), only to find it closed.

On the first occasion I merely wanted to pass in a scam letter I had received to alert the police, if they weren't already aware, that these particular letters were circulating the area.

The second visit was to report lost keys in the hope that if someone picked them up they might hand them in to the police station.

As neither of my reasons for visiting could be described as an emergency, I didn't use the telephone on the wall outside.

Returning home I rang the Merseyside non-emergency number and was connected to Formby where the answering machine was full and could take no more messages.

So back to non emergency, this time to be connected to the duty sergeant's desk only to be asked by another machine to leave a message and someone would get back to me: over two weeks later I have still not had a response.

Police work hard doing difficult and often very dangerous work, but if they are to retain the respect, appreciation and importantly the co-operation of the public they need to be more readily accessible and approachable.

So please can we have, at the very least, reliable opening times so that the people of Formby, whatever their concerns, will have some certainty in knowing when they will be able to walk in and speak to a police officer?

Who knows when some seemingly trivial matter might turn out to have more significance?

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Completion date

I WOULD be interested to hear from a Council representative or anyone else who can enlighten me on a timescale for the following:

1) Completion of the children’s play area in Duke Street Park.

It seems to have been 95% complete for a couple of months but apart from the children who squeeze through gaps in the fence it is not available to play on.

As we are now getting some good weather and with summer holidays approaching is there any likelihood this will be complete anytime soon?

2)Refurbishment of the public toilets in the Furness Avenue car park. I recall in the Formby Times last year that there was concern the refurbishment or replacement may not be complete by Dickensian Day! As we are now almost seven months further on do we assume that the shops are to continue supplying toilet facilities?

This must cause some annoyance and expense for hard pressed shops – I find it hard to understand how this issue can take so long to resolve? Surely if the building itself is sound (which it should be as it is not particularly old) the work of plastering, tiling, decorating and replacing toilets and sinks could not take more than a few weeks at the most.

As a parent with young children both of the above issues are of concern and I would like to receive an update.

DEREK FERGUSON

Monks Drive, Formby

Water queries

AFTER viewing Claire Curtis-Thomas' MP expenses I am currently wondering if we have a whale as a MP due to her persistent claims for water.

Be it a cooler, a bottle, or maybe a river?

Or has she previously purchased a dolphin and a swimming pool she wishes to hand fill?

Spending around £30-200 a month for water seems a bit extreme, surely she should be promoting her local water sources and drinking out of the tap like us mere mortals?

Or drowning herself in the copious amounts of ink she buys from Costco maybe?

Although I’m pretty sure most people already know about this due to her jawdropping phone bills.

EMILY

Contact details supplied

My expenses

I WOULD like to thank to everybody who has made enquiries with respect to my expenses as a Member of Parliament.

Currently, all MP’s expenses are being scrutinised and reviewed by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

All my expense claims complied with rules in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

I would like to emphasise that I am the second Member of Parliament, after Frank Field MP to have made their expenses public.

I want to apologise for the distress this matter has caused to my constituents.

CLAIRE CURTIS-THOMAS

MP

Mobile heroes

I WOULD like to thank the couple who retrieved my son’s mobile phone from the road at Cross Green.

It had travelled on the roof of a car and fallen off.

They kindly took it home for safety and this has saved a lot of heartache and money to my son.